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SKODI KODI
Run Kodi, work through its permissions (knowing that
failing to accept some of them may well impact its
ability to work at all), and you’re in—thankfully, without any of
the trappings of an app ostensibly developed for smartphones
and tablets. It works perfectly with the remote, and you can
now connect to any network media libraries you already have
set up. You’re also free to install your own add-ons [Image E]
as you would be with any other Kodi client. We’ll sidestep telling
you how to add your own custom add-on repositories, given that
they’re usually cesspits of piracy, but it’s possible to do so if you
wish to extend Kodi’s capabilities further.7
MORE THAN KODI
Why stop at Kodi? With Downloader on board, and your
device unlocked, you’re able to do whatever you like
beyond the offerings of Amazon’s rather limited app store.
Try a VPN to reach region-locked content; some, such as
NordVPN, are available direct from Amazon, while others, such
as ExpressVPN, are best installed via their Android app. Try
the Android version of VLC if you’re interested in slightly more
down-and-dirty streaming of your network media. Dig around
for APKs (those being Android packages) and install some
games. And if anything doesn’t play nice with the remote (when
you’re experimenting with Android apps, that’s likely to be quite
a lot), Mouse Toggle is a pretty essential extra. Open Downloader
and head to http://tinyurl.com/firetvmouse to get it—once it’s
installed, you’ll be able to double-tap the play button on your
remote to bring up a mouse cursor, which is controllable by the
arrow buttons.8
REMOTE OR ROOT
If you want to take this to the extreme, you can use your
ability to sideload apps to see what’s happening on
your Fire TV Stick through your PC, essentially giving you easyDremote access. TeamViewer itself requires Google
Play Services, but its QuickSupport cousin works
fine—use Downloader to grab it from https://download.
teamviewer.com/download/TeamViewerQS.apk, and run
it. You’ll note it asks for a number of permissions in order
to interact with content. We can’t, at least by default,
grant these, so you’ll only be able to see what’s going
on without interacting. To actually gain full control,
you’ll need to have root access to your Fire TV Stick,
something that is only possible on certain devices, and
even then the methodology is different for every one—
check http://aftvnews.com/root/ for the appropriate
guide for your device, while we sit here with our Fire TV
Stick 4K and weep at its unrootable nature.C EIf you want to get finer control over your Fire TV Stick,
ADB, or Android Developer Bridge, is the way to go. As its
name suggests, it’s a protocol that forms a bridge between
your PC and an Android device, enabling you to send files
between them and pull up a shell, exposing Android’s Linux
origins. Actually getting it set up can be a little finicky; begin
by switching on ADB debugging in the “My Fire TV” menu,
then head over to the “About” section in the same menu to
discover your IP address. Back on your PC, we recommend
walking through Amazon’s guide at http://developer.
amazon.com/docs/fire-tv/connecting-adb-to-device.html
to make sure you’ve set up everything properly. When you
have a connection established, head out and download
some APK files on your PC—the process of installing them
is a simple case of typing adb install <whatever>.apk into
your command prompt, then accepting the installation on
the screen of your Fire TV Stick.EASY AS ADB
maximumpc.com DEC 2019 MAXIMUMPC 67